The Road Ahead - December 4

As we wrap up our PC/Mac launch year, I thought I’d use this blog not only as the usual “Road Ahead,” but also as a “Road Travelled” entry, looking back on what we’ve accomplished since launch and giving you an update on where we’re going next.

The Road Travelled

As you all know, 2014 has been a very busy year for us at ZOS. We launched ESO on PC and Mac and immediately started addressing any issues that cropped up, going on to release five huge updates that introduced new content, new systems, tweaks and fixes to existing systems, and tons more. We’ve done so much since launch, in fact, that we’ve sometimes run the risk of doing too much and disrupting your play routines or character builds with the frequent changes.

With everything we’ve done, we firmly believe that ESO is a much better, more stable, and more fun game than it was six months ago. This is the way online games like this work: the game you launch is a starting point that inevitably evolves over time—and of course, community feedback is one of the most important parts of that process. I am very happy with the evolution of ESO up to this point, and I hope you all agree.

Here’s just a small list of some of the work we’ve done to improve ESO in since launch:

Made in-game chat much more peaceful by implementing many different lines of defense against black market gold farmers, spammers, and botters

Fixed a far-reaching quest bug that prevented quests from advancing properly—a bug that plagued us through the first few weeks of launch

Released Craglorn, our first major update, with new Veteran Ranks, a new zone for veteran players to explore, and 12-player Trials

Released many Veteran Dungeons, giving veteran-ranked players the ability to experience new adventures that add to the dungeon storylines introduced in earlier levels

Re-designed many of the delves throughout Tamriel to be larger and more challenging

Introduced the Dragonstar Arena, which presents four-player groups with a progression of challenging PvE encounters

Introduced new quality-of-life systems like the ability to dye your armor, new upgraded conversation and face animations, guild tabards, chat bubbles, and much more

Smoothed combat animations and timing, which is an ongoing process

Reconfigured Campaigns in Cyrodiil to make them shorter and more interesting

We’ve found (and are still finding!) solutions and are always applying changes to rectify our mistakes– we aren’t perfect, and this process will be ongoing, but we’re committed to continually improving the ESO experience

Worked to increase our overall transparency and communication with you, our community, which is also a continuing effort

We couldn’t be more excited about everything there is to look forward to in 2015. We’ll be introducing some of the new systems that we’ve talked about publicly over the last couple of months, and of course, we will be bringing ESO to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

For the team at ZOS, the remainder of 2014 will be spent working on one of our largest updates yet (more on that below) and continuing our work on the console versions. For you, this means that we will continue to listen to your feedback and make changes where needed with our regular smaller patch cadence of bug fixing and polishing, but we won’t be adding any new systems until Update 6 hits PTS in January.

Update 6 Coming in January

Our next update will come to PTS shortly after the first of the year. It’s going to be a big one, and will include both the Champion System and the Justice System.

The Champion System will include the new post-level 50 veteran progression changes we’ve been talking about for a few months now. We’ve done preparation work for the Champion System in updates 4 and 5, and Update 6 will include phase 3 of the system. This phase includes the ability to spend points in Champion Passives and many ability changes that complement the system.

We want to give everyone a heads up that we’ll be introducing the Justice System using a phased approach, much like what we’ve been doing with the Champion System. So, the first iteration of the Justice System will include Skyrim-style PvE elements—you’ll be able to steal from vendors, pickpocket NPCs, kill NPCs, have justice meted out to you by guards—but not with the PvP Enforcer part of the system.

The most important reason to do this is to make sure that the Justice System has a solid foundation before adding the extra PvP elements. As most of you know, PvP is by its very nature extremely difficult to predict. We want to have a stable system in place to build on before we add more unpredictable elements.

To put this into perspective, the Justice System will include huge updates to the very fundamentals of the game. Townspeople will be considered neutral and be attackable, and many items that you could take freely before will be considered owned and must be stolen. There are fences who’ll buy stolen goods—if you can get past the guards while you have a bounty on your head. These are large changes to the game, and go hand-in-hand with our vision to add more freedom and sandbox-style elements to the world. It’s going to be a lot of fun, and we just need to make sure that we phase it in carefully to ensure the best experience for everyone.

Update 6 is so large that we’ll be holding the Imperial City PvP area for a future update. With all of our QA and testing resources focused on the far-reaching Justice and Champion Systems (along with other systems impacted by the update), we want to be sure that the Imperial City is fully ready when it hits PTS and moves on to launch.

Console Update

As I’ve mentioned, we have been (and will continue to be) steadily working on the Xbox One and Playstation 4 versions of ESO. They are playable and fun right now, but there's still some work to do before we can set an official launch date. First and foremost, we want to make sure that two of our most important systems still in development—the Justice and Champion Systems—are included in the console release. Those two systems will introduce a huge amount of content to the game, and we know everyone is looking forward to the new types of gameplay they provide.

It’s also important to note that the Xbox One and Playstation 4 versions of ESO are not just ports of the PC/Mac game. We have completely replaced the PC user interface with a console-specific UI designed from the ground-up with a controller and a living room play experience in mind. We’ve also added voice chat and full integration with XBL and PSN. Expect to see lots of news about our console versions in early 2015.

Wrapping up 2014

Thanks for everything that you in the ESO Community have done for us over the last year. We will continue talk openly with you, react to feedback, fix problems, and move ESO forward together. Thank you so much for your input, your dedication, and for being involved.

This must be the single most awesome thing ever: Justice system plus Champion system
Justice system I was expecting that in months. The Real Santa Clause will be hunting the bad boys and girls on his list
Well, it is hard to contain my excitement at this point with the next mega update

This must be the single most awesome thing ever: Justice system plus Champion system
Justice system I was expecting that in months. The Real Santa Clause will be hunting the bad boys and girls on his list
Well, it is hard to contain my excitement at this point with the next mega update

It's a bummer that we'll have to wait a little longer for the PvP elements of the Justice System to be implemented, but hell, I'm so excited for any part of it that I'll try and hold on a little longer!

Does this mean the veteranranks will (finally) be ditched and all characters will be level 50?

Possible, but unlikely, as I think think they are supposed to be running in parallel for a while first.

A shame there was no anticipated timeframe for the Imperial City, since the data files assets suggested that was further along than the Justice System - personally I will take the PvE Justice System being in over Imperial City, but those who were hoping for more PvP content will be disappointed since there's lots of PvE content already.

So. If the UI for consoles is completely independent of the PC version does this mean we will begin to see updates for the PC UI to make it a little more keyboard/mouse friendly? I'm thinking things like ditching that horrendous Q-wheel and implementing hotkeys. Or movable window panes, a normal MMO inventory, etc.

Other than that, great job ZOS. I absolutely love the fact that you listen to the community and implement drastic changes to the game. A lot of the hate is unfounded and I would like to direct those individuals towards the Wildstar/Archeage/etc. forums to find out how truly terrible a game developer can be.

So. If the UI for consoles is completely independent of the PC version does this mean we will begin to see updates for the PC UI to make it a little more keyboard/mouse friendly? I'm thinking things like ditching that horrendous Q-wheel and implementing hotkeys. Or movable window panes, a normal MMO inventory, etc.

Other than that, great job ZOS. I absolutely love the fact that you listen to the community and implement drastic changes to the game. A lot of the hate is unfounded and I would like to direct those individuals towards the Wildstar/Archeage/etc. forums to find out how truly terrible a game developer can be.

^^ These things. If Greymind Quickslot Bar, Advanced Filters and Inventory Grid View were made standard (optional) parts of the UI, that would be great.

I realise I'm probably in the minority with this one. But I for one was hoping for text integration for consoles (even if its just with bluetooth keyboards, as there are no chat pads out for either console yet.)
You can't have an MMO without people spamming LFG WTS and WTB, it just isn't done.

Reading this info about Justice System implementation, it sounds like the first stage is all about getting players established as rogues and thieves. There's really not anything there for someone that wants to be on the side of the law. Those players have nothing to do until the PvP stage is introduced.

Am I missing something?

Also, is there any benefit to being a good guy? Other than being able to walk freely around town I guess.

Are you frickin kidding me?! The console version get's integrated voice and a new UI?? We really have been beta testing this game for the console release. It's pretty obvious now why these patches and updates have been such crap, they are devoting their resources to the consoles. Can you please redo the PC UI from the ground up? It's terrible. Also some controller support would be really nice especially since it would be pretty easy to add the same XBox controller support to a PC.

well done! all looks good, but just like waiting for a perfect sweet roll i can smell it cooking and i just cant take the agony of waiting ...

best in slot: is the armor, weapon, clothing look, pet, or no pet, jewelry, race, class, skill choices, amount of DPS, and skin color best fit to you and the way you wish to play and makes you feel good and performs what YOU think it should be.

worst in slot: what you read in zone chat, and forum comment, and forum thread, and you tube video, and live streamer advice, and class rep advice, and guild chat advice, and whisper told you to wear, and use for skill, and dress like, and use for weapon and armor.

Reading this info about Justice System implementation, it sounds like the first stage is all about getting players established as rogues and thieves. There's really not anything there for someone that wants to be on the side of the law. Those players have nothing to do until the PvP stage is introduced.

Am I missing something?

Also, is there any benefit to being a good guy? Other than being able to walk freely around town I guess.

Does Tamriel have a Goody Two-Shoes Guild?

Sharpen your blades, prepare your spells and feed your mount to be ready when the fruit is ripe for the picking:
In times of peace prepare for war